Snapchat’s co-founder is the youngest billionaire in the world

24-year-old Evan Spiegel, who co-founded messaging app Snapchat, has a fortune of $1.5bn, making him the youngest billionaire in the world, according to Forbes magazine’s 2015 Billionaires List.

Spiegel and co-founder/Stanford University fraternity friend Bobby Murphy rank at #1,250. The pair launched Snapchat in September 2011; since then, it has been aped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (who moved up five spots to #16 this year) with his Poke app, rejected a $3 billion takeover from Facebook in 2013, partnered with Warner Music Group, is used by an estimated 100 million people each month (Forbes), is valued at $10 billion and is seeking to raise capital to value it at an estimated $19 billion.

Crucially, its launch of Discover last month in the US and Europe - which connects users to news stories and other media - has been driving millions of page impressions for Snapchat’s 11 partnerships including WMG, Yahoo!, CNN and Vice Media. Discover has seen teasers for music videos by David Guetta, Drake and Blake Shelton featured, as well as the premiere of Madonna’s video Living for Love.

Figures shared today by mobile analytics firm 7Park Data show data consumption grew from around 150 megabytes per user per week to almost 400 MB per user per week in Europe and over 600 MB per user per week in the US.

Spiegel's ties to the music industry appear to be deepening; in December last year, leaked emails from the Sony Pictures outlined his plans to start a record label, and last month it was revealed that his discussions with Taylor Swift’s record label, Big Machine, about a possible US$350 million purchase fell through over the asking price.

The Billionaires list, which included a record 1,826 people, features Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, who ranked just above Facebook’s Zuckerberg at #15 with US$38.4bn; Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Steve Jobs who made the list at #45 with US$19.5bn; Dietrich Mateschitz founder of Red Bull and its record label, who ranked at #116 with US$10.8bn and media and label mogul David Geffen, who came in at #195 with US$6.9bn.

Microsoft magnate Bill Gates again takes the title of richest person in the world, he's taken the #1 spot for 16 of the list's past 21 years.

View the Top 15 below

1. Bill Gates $79.2bn (Microsoft)

2. Carlos Slim Helu $77.1bn (Phones and construction in Mexico)

3. Warren Buffett $72.7bn (Global investor)

4. Amancio Ortega $64.5bn (Zara and other fashion chains)

5. Larry Ellison $54.3bn (Oracle data storage technology)

6. Charles Koch $42.9bn (Industrialist)

7. David Koch $42.9bn (Industrialist)

8. Christy Walton $41.7bn (Walmart retail giant)

9. Jim Walton $40.6bn (Walmart retail giant)

10. Liliane Bettencourt $40.1bn (L'Oreal cosmetics firm)